The present invention is related to manifolds, and in particular to novel manifold geometries.
A manifold is a component that communicates a fluid (e.g., gas or liquid) via one or more manifold tubes between different inlets and outlets. Manifolds are utilized in a variety of industries and applications for this purpose. For example, in the aircraft industry, manifolds are employed to communicate fuel and oil between various inlets and outlets, which in turn are connected to various components such as pumps and heat exchangers. A typical manifold is constructed using a casting process in which the envelope of the manifold is defined, followed by a coring process in which the passages used for the gas and/or liquid are drilled. This type of manifold is known as a cored component because of the drilling process used to create the flow passages. Although the design and manufacture of such manifolds are well understood, the performance, weight and/or cost of these manifolds may be improved by utilizing different geometries not available via traditional casting/coring processes.